NFL Week 4 Shocks and Shrugs

I’m not surprised that the Bills lost, but I am surprised that they lost to the Bengals. I shouldn’t be, however, because Cincy has a solid defense and I’ve already sung Andy Dalton’s praises. Will the Bills be a playoff team? Despite their torrid start it’s probably not likely. Even though the Jets are struggling I still view them as better than Buffalo (I could definitely be wrong about that) and New England’s offense is incredible, I don’t care what happened two weeks ago.

49ers 24
Eagles 23

This one threw me for a loop. I nearly picked the Eagles to win the Super Bowl this year and while I still think that they will win the NFC East, they are not making it easy on themselves. I initially had the 49ers finishing 10-6 (I had the same record for the Rams when I went through my preseason exercise) but thought that things would be screwy with Jim Harbaugh taking over and having no contact with his players. Also, I just don’t trust Alex Smith, but things are looking fantastic by the Bay. I have no doubt that Harbaugh will build them into a formidable team for the long haul, the dude just gets it and I’m certain his players love playing for him. Plus, he’s in a great city with a great tradition… they are going to draft well, he’s going to coach them well, and he’ll get free agents there because of the aforementioned. The NFC West (and the NFC generally) should be very scared of what’s happening in San Francisco. But nevertheless, that they were able to travel to Philly and beat the Eagles is astonishing.

Falcons 30
Seahawks 28

Two things: First, I’m not impressed (at all) with Atlanta (although Julio Jones is a nice player). I think that they are the third-best team in the NFC South and I think that they’ll actually lose to Carolina at least once. Two, given how little I think of Atlanta, I think so much less of Seattle and though that this would be a game somewhere in the neighborhood of 31-10. It’s nice to see Sidney Rice do what he was brought (and paid) to do. It’s also nice to see Doug Baldwin sign the walking papers for Golden Tate (a guy I had so much hope for and thought was such a nice draft pick). And hey, Tarvaris Jackson looked pretty decent on Sunday (that overthrown/out-of-bounds-go-pattern-sure TD excluded). And yet… and yet this team still looks bad. I will not go into the 61-yard FG attempt and the subsequent explanation, except to say this: I thought it was a bad idea in the moment and think it was a bad idea in hindsight. If the NYGs do hang a 35-9 score on Seattle this week then we’ll be right back up here in the Shocks neighborhood.
Ravens 34
Jets 17

I love everything about Baltimore except their QB and feel somewhat vindicated by what I saw last week. As for Sanchez, to paraphrase and take his former coach’s quote out of context, “What’s his deal?” The result is not shocking, but the score diversity certainly is.

Shrugs

Bears 34
Panthers 29

There are some teams out there that I just can’t like for whatever reason and Chicago is certainly one of them. I just don’t believe in their team. I like elements of their defense and how could you not be consistently impressed by Devin Hester? It probably boils down to Mike Martz and Jay Cutler and my disdain for both of them. But Matt Forte is explosive and Johnny Knox is a player, so what’s my problem? As for Carolina, I’m curious to see what they’re going to look like when this year is through and what kind of team they put together next year. I’ve got a soft spot for Jonathan Stewart simply because he’s a local guy and I’ve known about him for years and I’m obviously smitten by Cam Newton. Interesting team.

Lions 34
Cowboys 30

Detroit really needs to pick it up. It’s awesome that they’ve been able to come back in all of these games thus far, but that simply isn’t sustainable. They’ve got to get going early and they are obviously capable of doing so. If they don’t watch it, they are going to get themselves into trouble by thinking that they can pull anything out at the end and may subconsciously not give their best effort early. It sounds elementary (and it is) but they need to focus from the beginning or they are going to revisit their losing ways. I do love their squad though and I hope that Matt Stafford can stay upright for the season because he’s got all of the tools to be one of the best in the game. As for Dallas. Come on, you saw this coming. What on earth do they have to do to keep from imploding?

Chiefs 22
Vikings 17

I cannot yawn hard enough here.

Saints 23
Jaguars 10

I love the Saints. I am indifferent toward the Jags—much like their own fanbase.

Texans 17
Steelers 10

This result wasn’t a full-on shrug simply because the Steelers are a tough team, but the result is not totally surprising because of Roethlisberger’s injury.

To quote Lenny from Law & Order who played Baby’s dad in Dirty Dancing, “When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong.” I was wrong about Washington and should have listened to Mike Lombardi who said that the Redskins were the class of the NFC East. I just couldn’t get past Rex Grossman and John Beck at QB, but I completely overlooked how good their defense is. Also, while tempted to question what’s up with the Lou, I need to remember that while I predicted them to win the NFC West at 8-8, I had them going 1-3 through the first four games (Philly, at New York Giants, Baltimore, Washington). I had them losing to everyone except for Washington. They appear to be floundering but they are right where I expected them to be.

Here is how I predicted their remaining games (7-5 finish):

At Green Bay (loss)
At Dallas (loss)
New Orleans (loss)
At Arizona (win)
At Cleveland (win)
Seattle (win)
Arizona again (win)
At San Francisco (loss)
At Seattle again (win)
Cincy (win)
At Pittsburgh (loss)
San Francisco again (win).

So basically I had them starting out 1-6 and still winning the division because they don’t even play an NFC West foe until game No. 8. Anyway, it’s more realistic that San Francisco is going to win the division and that St. Louis is going to finish 6-10 or 5-11.

Giants 31
Cardinals 27

The NYGs are on a roll lately but it’s really hard to judge a team based on beating Arizona

Packers 49
Broncos 23

It probably is the perfect time for Tebow to play now because clearly Denver is terrible. I had a sense that they were before the season started and used them as a measuring stick in the preseason to gauge how I felt out Seattle’s prospects. When the Broncos demolished the Seahawks, I thought: “Denver is terrible and look what they did to Seattle, this means Seattle will be gawdawful.”

Chargers 26
Dolphins 16

San Diego should be better. Much better. Miami is dreadful. 0

Patriots 31
Raiders 19

I thought that Oakland would put up more of a fight, but this is clearly not a shocking result.